Flexible Hardware Accelerators for Ultra-Low Power Edge AI: The CONVOLVE Approach

The prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications has been undisputed in most fields of modern computing. As the paradigm shifts from high-performance Cloud computing infrastructure to decentralized smart Edge devices that offer higher reliability and lower latency, with no need for high-speed connectivity, more effort has been required to address resource and energy concerns. In this paper, we present the advancements of the HORIZON EU CONVOLVE project and focus on the development of flexible accelerators targeting several types of modern Edge AI applications. We outline the architectural decisions for the CONVOLVE SoC and highlight the various techniques employed in 4 of our developed accelerators. These steps mark a significant step toward enabling Ultra-Low Power (ULP) AI processing at the edge. Finally, we present quantitative hardware results and discuss the design trade-offs and performance characteristics of the proposed micro-architectures.